Every November 5th since the 1600s, the narrow streets of Lewes have hosted an event that’s evolved from a Protestant riot to a massive, attention-grabbing spectacle of tar barrels, burning crosses and often cryptic papier-mâché caricatures ripped straight from the year’s headlines. The Lewes Bonfire now hosts over thirty societies, each with their own variations on tradition, theme and costumes but all seeming reactionary, tone-deaf and archaic in a modern Sussex town.
Unlike a lot of Guy Fawkes events, the anti-Catholic roots and resulting political undertones of bonfires are far from forgotten at Lewes. Slogans such as “No Popery” have roots in historic Protestant-Catholic clashes in England evoking sinister images of areas, such as Northern Ireland, where these sectarian tensions are still a part of daily life. Lewes ends up more reminiscent of Unionist bonfires and burning Gerry Adams posters than fireworks and sparklers. The caricatures of politicians and burning tar barrels result in an event that feels painfully outdated, chaotic and often racist in contrast to a simple fireworks show.
One of the most notable traditions at Lewes is the sometimes politically incomprehensible papier-mâché statues of anyone making headlines, from Boris Johnson peeing on newspapers to Angela Merkel as a Nazi, and always including Pope Paul V (who was Pope during the gunpowder plot but had no involvement). This tradition itself seems to show how bizarre the event is in a modern world; although it may at first seem like there is a coherent ideology behind the choice of targets, the only criteria for selection seems to be gathering attention and controversy, leading to a parade of headlines reactionary in the purest possible sense, often including confusing messages in the floats themselves. The most controversial effigies verge into pure, undisguised bigotry with a travellers’ caravan being burnt in 2003.
Possibly the most uncomfortable imagery at Lewes is racial. Blackface-based “zulu” costumes were commonplace until just 2018 (following uproar after viral images of a five-year-old in full blackface and broken promises to ban the practice in 2017). In addition to the blackface, burning crosses are carried through the streets by a sea of white faces. The crosses come from a traditional memorial of the seventeen martyrs the event was created to commemorate, but it’s impossible not to draw the instant connection to their use by the Ku Klux Klan as a form of intimidation. Wilfully careless at best and a thinly veiled expression of bigotry at worst, these lead to an event that evokes undeniably horrific imagery and calls into question why these particular traditions have been maintained.
While the crosses are part of a memorial tradition, that use is irrelevant and almost completely forgotten to 99% of the population and instead overshadowed by one of the darkest aspects of post-slavery race relations in the English speaking world. Even less excuse can be made for the use of blackface, going almost completely unquestioned until public uproar and having no relation to the event’s Protestant roots. The blackface and costumes it is part of come from the “Zulu” theme of one of the bonfires societies which has since been dropped, but the lack of apology and fact this tradition only ended in the last few years makes this feel more like a coverup to avoid headlines than a reassessment of the insensitive and archaic imagery of a lot of the event.
Between the uncomfortable imagery, bizarre statements and plenty of fire-related injuries each year, it becomes questionable that the Lewes bonfire has survived so long as such a chaotic and unchanging event. In a place that is constantly growing, is it worth keeping these outdated and unsettling traditions to commemorate events with almost no relevance to modern Sussex?
